Poll suggests backlash on 'gay' issues

More don't consider homosexuality 'acceptable alternative lifestyle'

The landmark United States Supreme Court decision rejecting Texas’ ban on same-sex sodomy, regarded by advocates as a constitutional right to “gay” sex, has helped spark a backlash against homosexuality in public sentiment, according to a new poll.

As WorldNetDaily reported, the high court said in a 6-3 ruling in Lawrence v. Texas last month that states cannot punish homosexual couples for engaging in sex acts that are legal for heterosexuals.

Defenders of the Texas law had contended the ultimate goal of the case was not to end sodomy laws, but to advance the “ambitious agenda” of homosexual activists.

“The court has largely signed on to the so-called homosexual agenda,” Justice Antonin Scalia concurred in a written dissenting opinion.

Asked whether same-sex relations between consenting adults should be legal, 48 percent said yes, while 46 percent said no.

Prior to the ruling in early May, the ratio peaked at 60 percent in favor, 35 percent opposed.

According to the numbers, 49 percent of respondents said homosexuality should not be considered “an acceptable alternative lifestyle,” while 46 percent said it should. This marks the first time since 1997 that more people were opposed.

Opposition to civil unions has also risen, according to the poll, even amid recent developments promoting them. WorldNetDaily reported the New York Times recently decided to publish notices of same-sex ceremonies along with its wedding announcements and the September-October issue of Cond? Nast’s Bride’s magazine currently on newsstands features an article on homosexual weddings.

Fifty-seven percent polled said they opposed civil unions – the most opposition since the question was first asked in 2000 – while 40 percent voiced support.

“The more that the movement demands the endorsement of the law and the culture, the more resistance there will be,” Gary Bauer, president of American Values, told USA Today.

The paper reports Bauer and other conservative social activists see a backlash under way to recent gains on the part of the homosexual community, including a Canadian court decision to allow “gay” couples to marry in Ontario and the California state Assembly’s passage of a historic bill that would award virtually all the rights of marriage to homosexual “domestic partners.”

The poll findings disappoint homosexual-rights advocates.

“Clearly, the debate [over recent developments] has had an effect,” David Smith of the Human Rights Campaign told USA Today, adding that over time, “The country always ends up on the side of fairness, and I think they will here, too.”